Nine Day Germany Itinerary Help

This sounds do-able, but only just. There is a lot of travelling here. The best place to look up driving times and distances is viamichelin.com, but that only shows driving times, you need to add in any stops you make.
Yes, the golden rule is at least 2 nights in any location, otherwise you spend more time travelling than sightseeing.

Have you checked your hotels have parking? do not assume it. In big cities (Munich) to get parking you may need to book a hotel outside the centre, which then involves taking public transport into the city centre. In Nuremberg you will almost certainly need to stop at a "Park and Ride" on the edge of the city and get Public Transport in.

Füssen to Cocherm is 5½ hours driving. I would recomend Heidelberg as a stop off as it is not too far off route.

BTW, it is Füssen (Not Fusen) with two S, and a Ü not a U, and the full name is "Rothenburg ob der Tauber", there is more than one Rothenburg in Germany; it is Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg), NOT Nuremburg; Dachau NOT Dauchau; Andechs Abbey (German: Kloster Andechs). A lot of confusion can be caused by mis-spelling names.

P.S. This post was made in December 2014, yet you write "planning a trip to Germany at the end of October this year". I assume you mean October 2015, i.e. next year.

You can use Fuessen if you can't type an umlaut U.

Do Salzburg as a day trip from Munich, not Fuessen.

Look into a stop in the Black Forest in Gengenbach.

Stuttgart if you are interested in automobiles.

I apologize for the incorrect spellings! I have never posted on a website like this before and was a bit nervous about getting the itinerary down correct ... I should have double-checked the spellings and I should have said October 2015! Thanks for your input.

I think the reason Chris corrected your spelling is that there are different cities with similar names. we drove with a GPS in our rented car. We typed in Fussen without the umlaut and panicked because the driving time was a few hours and we wanted to be at our next stop before dark. thank goodness we realized our mistake before we drove too far out of our way. We stayed in Fussen, Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Weinheim ( which is near Heidelberg), and Berlin. Wurzburg I have read about here with only good reviews.

Hi Joyce, could you give us a little more info, so we could focus our answers to your preferences?

Have you been to Germany previously? Is your goal to see as much as possible at a faster pace, or does the idea of spending an afternoon strolling through the old part of Salzburg sound appealing? When you're thinking of an ideal day in Germany, would it be in a small village or a large city - inside a museum or outside seeing mountains, etc.? Shopping vs. no shopping preference? Do you want to travel by car for the entire trip or should we be offering ideas for efficient train travel, also?

Hi Jean - We have never been to Germany and, unfortunately, when we travel to Europe, I always think I will never be back so I tend to pack too much into our trips. I'm trying to slow down the pace a little. We like strolling the streets, visiting the historical areas, castles and quaint towns. We also like to take in the beautiful scenery. My husband is not a shopper but we enjoy the small shops, restaurants and people watching with a beer in hand! We are planning on driving because of the hassles of dragging our suitcases around and not wanting to be on a schedule but it might make sense to take trains for side trips. I appreciate any suggestions you might have on what not to miss!

Hi Joyce,

Did you buy your airline tickets yet? If not, look into flying into Frankfurt and out of Munich.

Salzburg is certainly not a day trip from Fuessen.

This way you could arrive in Frankfurt and drive to Cochem.
Then to Rothenburg
Then to Fuessen
Then to Salzburg
Then to Munich

We did a similar trip in mid Oct. 2007.

Paul

Thanks, Paul - It really helps to get feedback from someone who has done this trip before. I haven't purchased my airline tickets yet and you have hit all the cities on my "must" list so I think I may revise the order. Someone else mentioned Salzburg from Munich so by going that way, it would free up a night to stay overnight in Salzburg.

2 nights in each place is nice, but it gives you only one full day at each stop. If you want a day trip to Nurnberg from Rothenburg odT, that doesn't leave much time to explore Rothenburg. Similarily, Dachau and Andechs Monastery are in opposite directions. This would definitely take all of a day, leaving little time to wander Munich.

By the end of October, days are shorter and weather is definitely iffy.

My H and I took 3+ weeks in Sept/Oct this year, and even though we had at least 3 nights in each spot, it really wasn't enough.
In Munich, we did a long walk out to the 'fest on day 1, Dachau (drove, spent most of the day there, were drained at the end of it, but managed a trip to the Residenz just before closing, day 3 to the 'fest, with a museum in the morning ( different one for each of us). Another day at a minimum to catch a few more things would have been ideal. Our next stop was 6 nights, so doing a lot in a short span kind of worked.

Do look at Via Michelin to get an idea of drive times, then add 10% to get lost, lol. The hotels in Rothenburg & Munich had parking for a price. Except for the trip to Dachau, the car stayed parked in Munich.

Think about what you'd like to see/do, then subtract things to fit available time. You will go back.

After Munich, Mittenwald and Garmisch-Partenkirchen are close by and offer beautiful mountain scenery. Salzburg would definitely be a good destination to stay a few days and enjoy the old center of town and the gorgeous mountains and lakes nearby vs. just a day-trip. It's a beautiful town in the evening, too. We're heading back to Salzburg for 4 days next year and also staying in nearby St. Wolfgang for 2 days.

I've been to Stuttgart & Baden-Baden and wouldn't consider either of them for a first-time trip to Germany. Baden-Baden was our least favorite town during the Rick Steves Germany, Switzerland, Austria trip.

I agree with another posting that flying to Frankfurt and returning from Munich will maximize your days.

Hi again Joyce,

Just wanted to add that if you don't mind connecting on the return trip through Newark, NJ, Lufthansa has a 3:20pm flight out of Munich, non stop to Newark then to Pittsburgh. We've had this flight on our last 4 trips home from Germany (Munich) in 10/07, 10/09, 12/10 and 12/13 and will still go with it for future trips. It nice to have the option of staying within 2 to 3 hours of Munich airport and still have a relaxing morning before getting to our flight. Our last 2 trips we stayed in Hall in Tirol (by Innsbruck) and the 2 before those by Berchtesgaden (by Salzburg) for our last night before our 3:20pm flight home. All the trips before these we stayed near the airport (in either Erding or Hallbergmoos), got up at 4am or so to get to the airport at least 2.5 hours before our 7 or 8 am flight home. Never again :)

If you spend your last night in Munich, you can have a very nice, relaxing morning before heading to the airport.

Paul

If you flew into Munich and departed from Frankfurt, you wouldn't have to rent a car immediately after landing to drive another 3 hours or so to Rothenburg, something that is extremely dangerous after a trans-Atlantic flight. Land in Munich, sight see, visit Dachau, then head to your other destinations. If you are visiting Cochem, you may also want to spend some time on the Rhine where there are loads of castles. If you want a medieval walled town with out the tourist buses, you could visit Büdingen, only an hours train ride from Frankfurt.

October is wine festival season and many of the towns along the Mosel and the Rhine as well as many cities will be having festivals.

End of October is also the beginning of fog season, and you may end up on the Mosel or Rhine with fog blocking every view. If possible, I would try and get to Germany earlier in the month.

Hi Ms. Jo,

I understand you live in Germany, but after visiting many times in mid to late October, we never experienced nor heard of "fog season". We actually think October is the ideal month to visit, as we've experienced, in general, very nice weather with very little rain and no fog. Just our experiences as ones who do not live there.

Paul

My last trip along the Rhine was in late Sept. and the fog was so bad, we couldn't see anything at all until it burned off by around 13:00 or so. Autumn means fog fairly often, especially along rivers and up in the mountains. Not so much in the city, but the countryside in late Sept. all of Oct. and through Nov. and Dec. can really be foggy. Certainly not all the time but it is quite common. I only mentioned it as in late Oct., the more chance of bad weather one has.

"...when we travel to Europe, I always think I will never be back so I tend to pack too much into our trips. I'm trying to slow down the pace a little."

Sadly (and happily) there are many wonderful destinations in Germany. Your 8 sightseeing days are scattered around the country in 8+ destinations - so you will spend a huge chunk of time in your car and your pace will be furious.

Here are 2 somewhat reasonable choices that will minimize your ground travel time.

1.) SOUTHERN BAVARIA: Fly into and out of MUC. Visit Munich, Dachau, Andechs, Füssen, Salzburg. Whew - that's a ton on your plate already. You would be able to do outings to most or all of these places using Munich as a single base - no dragging your luggage around at all this way except between MUC and Munich - but you'd want to do it all by train to avoid Munich traffic.

2.) RHINE/MOSEL AND NORTHERN BAVARIA: Fly into and out of FRA. Use just 2 base towns - Cochem and Rothenburg (or thereabouts.)

From Cochem: Burg Eltz, Reichsburg in Cochem; the other Rhine and Mosel towns are outstanding as well for this sort of thing:
" We like strolling the streets, visiting the historical areas, castles and quaint towns. We also like to take in the beautiful scenery. My husband is not a shopper but we enjoy the small shops, restaurants and people watching with a beer in hand!
WINNINGEN, MOSEL
OBERWESEL, RHINE
RHINE NEAR BINGEN
BRAUBACH, RHINE
WW II historical site, Remagen Bridge and present-day Peace Museum

From Rothenburg:
The excellent Freilandmuseum in Bad Windsheim
Half-timbered, walled town of Ochsenfurt
Iphofen photos
Wine town Sommerhausen, Marktbreit
Nuremberg: The Nazi Documentation Center in Nuremberg will sufficiently compensate for the absence of Dachau on your itinerary.
Nice old town zone in Nuremberg near the castle; Nuremberg pub and Biergarten guide
Instead of sleeping at FRA the final nigght, maybe stay in the Romantic Road city of Würzburg (also worth visiting) and take the train straight to the FRA terminal (1.5 hours.)

I would do this entire second option by train. But a car will work too if that's your preference.

Joyce, you have 9 nights for this trip?

In mid Oct. 2007, we had 10 nights total and did this:
Arrived Frankfurt airport around 6:30am
Got our car and first stopped in Bacharach, then St. Goar, then crossed the Rhine by car ferry and toured Markasburg castle. We then drove to Cochem, where we based for 4 nights. In retrospect, 3 nights would have been ok. Burg Eltz was the highlight.
We then stayed 2 nights in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which seems just right.
We then drove to the Berchtesgaden area (Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden) and based here for 4 nights. Salzburg is less than a 30 min. drive from here. We've spent 18 nights based in the Berchtesgaden area since 2006. You will not run out of things to see and do and easy day trips based here. Since we had the 3:20pm flight home from Munich airport, our last night was spent here also.

Just using this as an example.

Paul

Thanks for all the suggestions here, I am planning a trip similar to this but want to know about adding something else. My wife's ancestrial family and mine are from to towns about seven kilometers apart near Colon. How hard would it be to add three days in Colon to an itinerary like mentioned above?

"I understand you live in Germany, but after visiting many times in mid to late October, we never experienced nor heard of "fog season".

From late October until perhaps April or May, more often than not, much of Germany, particularly the SW, is very overcast. At it's worst, you find thick blankets of fog in the morning that don't completely dissipate throughout the day. Even without the thick blankets of fog, the damp atmosphere often tints everything with a grey haze. That's one of the reasons why rural sight-seeing is far more low yield in the colder months than in the summer. Jo knows what she's talking about. It's exactly what I experienced living in Germany for over 4 years.

Michael, did you possibly mean Cologne (Köln) or Cochem? There is no Colon Germany.

Any number of things to do or see anywhere in Germany, but it is best to start your own topic thread, as this one is about visiting other cities.

I want to thank everyone for your help from switching up my itinerary to making sure I spell the towns correctly so the GPS will send me to the right destinations. I will keep checking back for any other suggestions. My trip is in October 2015 so any suggestions and recommendations on things not to miss would be greatly appreciated.

I wasn't implying Jo doesn't know what she's talking about. I've just never heard the term "fog season" nor experienced it. Sorry if I offended Jo.

Paul

Paul, you would have to do a whole lot more than that to offend me. :-)

Nebel is the German word for fog, Nebelig means foggy, and there are lots of times where we have weeks or days without any, but when it is there, you can't see anything. Really weird in downtown Frankfurt when you can't see the tops of any of the buildings. My trip on the Rhine was like that, but we were fortunate enough that it burned off and we took the ship from St. Goar back to Rüdesheim. The slow route, but still beautiful.

Hi Joyce. I've been to Germany twice - 2011 and just returned a week ago. I am in my mid-50's. Both have been lovely experiences; however, I would say I am certainly NOT an expert on the area.

From my personal experience with your current choices:
- Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a beautiful little town.
- Nuremberg offers so many things to see, but I especially liked the
Old Town.
- Dachau is a somber experience but so worthwhile.
- I am assuming you will see Neuschwanstein (and Hohenschwangau) while
in Fussen, but if not, I do recommend those.
- I've not been to Salzburg.
- Cochem is such a lovely little town right on the Moselle River. The
castle there and Burg Eltz are beautiful.

For our 2011 trip, we traveled mostly in the Bavaria state, and also visited Innsbruck (beautiful town!) and Vienna in Austria. I can also recommend Oberammergau, Germany to visit. Many of the houses there are beautifully (fresco) painted, as well as being constructed with the lovely half-timbers.

For the 2014 trip, we traveled to small towns and visited Christkindl Markets and a few historical sites. Some of the loveliest small towns on this trip were Cochem, Bernkastel-Kues, Erfurt, Altotting, and Gengenbach.

I have never driven in Germany so I cannot really speak to the good/bad of doing so. I know the countryside is very beautiful. However, I would recommend train travel. You get to see some of the beauty of the country from the train but you travel in far less time than by car. And as someone else has already mentioned, parking is not always easy in many places. Perhaps you could divide your trip and drive one of the most picturesque parts you plan to travel to when you have plenty of time. I don't know if that is advisable but if you can determine a "central" place to stay, perhaps Nuremberg, and then choose one destination to drive to, you could have the best of both worlds. I have found the train system to be quite efficient and easy.

Enjoy your trip to Germany! I would love to return there some day!

Hi Joyce,

You've received a lot of great suggestions. In particular, I agree that you should fly onto Munich and out of Frankfurt.

You have listed a lot of things to see in such a short time and are moving around a lot, which will impact your ability to see it all. We have always traveled in Germany by car and this is what I'd suggest.

Fly into Munich, spend 4 nights/3 days - spend the day you arrive exploring the city centre, then spend one day each doing a day trip to Nuremberg and to Salzburg by train (check out the Bayern Ticket, it is very affordable), spend one day visiting Dachau and exploring the city.

Pick up your rental car and drive to Fuessen, spend 2 nights - visit Andechs Monastery on your way out of Munich

Spend one night in Rothenburg or Heidelberg on your way to the Mosel. Although the Black Forest towns would be lovely, it takes you further out of your way on what will already be a long drive.

Spend your last two nights in Cochem.

Hope this helps.